SHINEDOWN Members’ LP Becomes EP

SHINEDOWN frontman Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers will release their fan-powered covers ten-track album as a six-track EP after they failed to secure release permission from every artist they’d originally included.

Fans had chosen the list of songs to be recorded acoustically – but Myers last month confirmed that Bon Jovi were amongst those unhappy with the project, and wouldn’t let them use a cover of Wanted Dead Or Alive.

The plan was for each song to be accompanied by a video – and Smith says that’s where problems arose. He explains: “Some of the artists were cool with letting us put them up on YouTube and show the video of the song being records. Some weren’t cool with the video, and that’s totally their decision.

“The first six were approved and good to go, and you could show the video with it and everything else, so those are the first six that we’re going to release.”

Along with the Bon Jovi song, Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight, Pearl Jam’s Black and Adele’s Someone Like You won’t appear. The pair still hope those covers can be released in audio only over the coming months.

In another change of plan, the digital Acoustic Sessions EP will be launched on January 28 as a Smith & Myers title instead of a Shinedown one. Hear their take on Clash classic London Calling below.